Olympics 2012

Not a phrase i thought i,d use today
But the Archery final was brilliant stuff
Italians needed 18 with last two arrows - hit 8 followed by a 10 on the line and on the time buzzer.

OMAR wrote:Not a phrase i thought i,d use today
But the Archery final was brilliant stuff
Italians needed 18 with last two arrows - hit 8 followed by a 10 on the line and on the time buzzer.

Watched it. It was brilliant stuff. Couple of good womens basketball games on today too. Also got to see a few minutes of fencing, beach volleyball, volleyball and soccer. Nice!

Timmy Mccarthy back on the mike- i,d forgotten about him he,s a gas man.

Wait for the dream team he loses it all together when Lebron's on court

Great action already in the pool this evening. Lockte very impressive, although the times suggested that Phelps has slipped very badly from what he once was. And the 16 yr old Chinese girl in the 400 IM just swam the best final 100m that you'll ever see in a distance race.

Cav a bit snarly with the media but probably rightly so. The banner on the bbc website yesterday was cavendish coronation. If it is as simple as a sprint finish why bother cycling 6 hours and 200km plus. Seems like a complete lack of understanding of the downside risk from the british media. Cavendish wins races inside the last 200m so the fact that the race was lost 20km from the finish means it just wasn'nt going to be his day.
Ajournalist asks cavendish was he tired fromthe TDF,what a stupid question, what did he expect that cavendish would break from the peleton on his own and cycle 49 km at TT pace of 60km ph and track down the breakaway and beat then in a sprint without a lead out man.

If team GB wanted gold today they should have avoided box and needed a team of 10 (if this was not possible under olympics) they should have had a pre- agreed pact with spain or someone else tomdouble up on the chase.

In the TDF cac still only wins less than50pc of sprinter stages because of breakaways, bad luck, crashes etc etc and even at that he benefits from an 6/7 man train to lead him out.

OMAR wrote:Damned if I know what that Colombian was trying to do at the finish of the cycling slows down and looks down the narrow side leaving a red carpet for vinakourov. Bad crash for Cancellaro. Seemed like both wheels slid on a dry road

Outfoxed by the Khazechacie(sic) lad (Runner-up in Sydney )....Massive, massive craft....

"He wing-mirroded right and when he wing-mirroded left I was gone"

A worthy Gold Medallist.....

Thomas Clarke wrote:And the 16 yr old Chinese girl in the 400 IM just swam the best final 100m that you'll ever see in a distance race.

And broke the World Record by over a second ... shades of turtle soup here ...

Parouisa wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:And the 16 yr old Chinese girl in the 400 IM just swam the best final 100m that you'll ever see in a distance race.

And broke the World Record by over a second ... shades of turtle soup here ...

There is always that concern. It is possible though, as many top swimmers emerge at that age, especially the women. I hope it is genuine, but it was scarily impressive.

OMAR wrote:Cav a bit snarly with the media but probably rightly so. The banner on the bbc website yesterday was cavendish coronation. If it is as simple as a sprint finish why bother cycling 6 hours and 200km plus. Seems like a complete lack of understanding of the downside risk from the british media. Cavendish wins races inside the last 200m so the fact that the race was lost 20km from the finish means it just wasn'nt going to be his day.
Ajournalist asks cavendish was he tired fromthe TDF,what a stupid question, what did he expect that cavendish would break from the peleton on his own and cycle 49 km at TT pace of 60km ph and track down the breakaway and beat then in a sprint without a lead out man.

If team GB wanted gold today they should have avoided box and needed a team of 10 (if this was not possible under olympics) they should have had a pre- agreed pact with spain or someone else tomdouble up on the chase.

In the TDF cac still only wins less than50pc of sprinter stages because of breakaways, bad luck, crashes etc etc and even at that he benefits from an 6/7 man train to lead him out.

I watched this from about 60k out. Just about where Team GB failed to attach to the break.
It's The Olympics FFS...This is Olympian stuff, Every dog has/may have his day.....

A worthy winner, fought his to the front and had the balls to trust Himself......

I was just looking at Phelps earlier and thinking about the age thing with swimmers TC. Used to be teenagers but lately seems to be 24/25 is peak?? Michelle of course was a little older ...

Parouisa wrote:I was just looking at Phelps earlier and thinking about the age thing with swimmers TC. Used to be teenagers but lately seems to be 24/25 is peak?? Michelle of course was a little older ...

Perhaps a bit older, but I remember Phelps dominating at 18, and Thorpe at 15. It has been done.

But yeah, I think in most sports it is taking longer for the breakthrough now than ever before. Even in tennis, where we might never again see a Michael Chang or a Boris Becker, a Jennifer Capriati or a Martina Hingis.

Boxtyeater wrote:
Outfoxed by the Khazechacie(sic) lad (Runner-up in Sydney )....Massive, massive craft....

Oh he's crafty alright, so much so that he had to take an enforced break for a couple of years.

I suppose a child prodigy is always possible though. Just thinking we will probably see the first gold medallist born in this milennium at the next Olympics! Now if that doesn't make us all feel old .....

Also want to mention our boxers - two superbly controlled performances today. There are tougher fights ahead but these guys do everything the right way.

Parouisa wrote:I suppose a child prodigy is always possible though. Just thinking we will probably see the first gold medallist born in this milennium at the next Olympics! Now if that doesn't make us all feel old .....

Also want to mention our boxers - two superbly controlled performances today. There are tougher fights ahead but these guys do everything the right way.

This was the big thing for me. Lads obviously have their eyes on the end goal.

kieran Behan in the olympics he done well today

[quote="Thomas Clarke"]

Boxtyeater wrote:
Outfoxed by the Khazechacie(sic) lad (Runner-up in Sydney )....Massive, massive craft....

Oh he's crafty alright, so much so that he had to take an enforced break for a couple of years. [/quote

Reminds me

Recently came across pantanis's ascent of alpe dheuz

In 97 average of 23.5 which is around what a leisure cy list does in the flat
He virtually sPrinted his way up the mountain.

If there was no rules it was still awesome

patsymc wrote:kieran Behan in the olympics he done well today

Yes indeed, BBC just did a little piece on him. Well done Kieran!

Mark Cavendish was asked on television 'Was Tour de France tiredness a factor in the result today?'. Answer, 'No, stop asking stupid questions. Do you know about cycling?'.

A classy guy, and was hilarious to see him blaming all the other teams for his failure today.

He'll be back to being from the IoM tomorrow ....

Parouisa wrote:He'll be back to being from the IoM tomorrow ....

He already is, on 'the Beeb' just 2 seconds ago. And they also talked about disappointment for Scotland's Murray brothers.

Thomas Clarke wrote:Mark Cavendish was asked on television 'Was Tour de France tiredness a factor in the result today?'. Answer, 'No, stop asking stupid questions. Do you know about cycling?'.

A classy guy, and was hilarious to see him blaming all the other teams for his failure today.

To be fair it was a stupid question.and it was on the back of a plethora of stupid questions that he had grinned and beared
Even if cavendish was at 200pc of normal form. Not much he can do if he is not in peloton at finish.
A team of four had to do the work that is normally done by a dozen.
The best solo rider in the world was dead on his feet driving a chase single handed at 40 mph. As I said earlier the mistake was not having a pact
And leaving a group with riders like Cancellaro and vinakourov
Such a gAp
But the questions about tiredness and one about team spirit were stupid

Incidentally while I can put up with Jimmy Magee in the same way as you might be respectful to an elderly neighbour, I wish someone would explain the boxing scoring to him. He doesn't realised that the scores are done on individual rounds - and not cumulatively. If someone doesn't explain this to him he is going to get some shock when a guy who loses the first round 5-3 suddenly scores minus 2 when losing the second round 6-1. It is taking away from what is otherwise excellent coverage and analysis.

Also strikes me that Mick Dowling, Bernard and Kenny E are just magic material for the Apres Match crew. Barry Murphy even looks likes Egan and Gary Cooke could be Mick D!

ps Wish the Brits would stop looking for approval that its a great event/crowd etc from every foreign competitor/commentator/team person in every competition ... they are coming across as Irish ...

OMAR wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:Mark Cavendish was asked on television 'Was Tour de France tiredness a factor in the result today?'. Answer, 'No, stop asking stupid questions. Do you know about cycling?'.

A classy guy, and was hilarious to see him blaming all the other teams for his failure today.

To be fair it was a stupid question.and it was on the back of a plethora of stupid questions that he had grinned and beared
Even if cavendish was at 200pc of normal form. Not much he can do if he is not in peloton at finish.
A team of four had to do the work that is normally done by a dozen.
The best solo rider in the world was dead on his feet driving a chase single handed at 40 mph. As I said earlier the mistake was not having a pact
And leaving a group with riders like Cancellaro and vinakourov
Such a gAp
But the questions about tiredness and one about team spirit were stupid

Perhaps they should have asked him:

'Mark, you are complaining about the other teams not helping you, but is it not fair to say that most of them had riders in the large breakaway group, and your moaning just sounds like sour grapes? Is it also fair to say that you hampered your team's ability to close the gap because you were unable to drag yourself up Box Hill, and they had to wait with you?'

Cavendish is a very well paid young man, and I think he should have the courtesy to answer questions professionally, particularly when many of the viewers would not be informed cycling fans.

To be fair he is a fractious individual at the best of times. GBTV had built him up to be the first gold and he didn't deliver in a big way. Can't expect him to be full of the joys of spring ... or July even ....

No sign of Gary O'Toole - one of the better analysts.

A lot of the peloton ganging up on Cavendish because he wins so much. Basically Team Sky riding against everyone else.